2008

[perlmonger]

I was down with flu over New Year last year, and come Christmas Eve this time round my adenoids decided to assault that specific spot in my throat that triggers my swallow reflex. Thankfully nothing fluish has developed, but I've still got a bastard dry cough that (through empirical tests) has proved immune to Pholcodine, hot whiskey and lemon, and Night Nurse. Separately and in combination. I hit it with good old-fashioned Benylin last night but even the third of a bottle of that I swigged overnight didn't stop me spending an hour awake and coughing around 2am. ramtops is suffering from something related - less coughing but more chest pain and tightness of breath - so between us we've managed to do virtually nothing of the things we'd planned for our fortnight off work. Ho hum.

Anyhow, here's all your traditional end-of-year trivia, in one, easy-to-ignore, post.

12 months of LJ

January - Here’s hoping 2008 improves :)

The ManFlu I’ve been enjoying since we got back from Norwich hit its peak (I hope) last night.

February - Please sign here

If you haven’t already done so, please sign the petition asking the UKFO to “put all possible pressure on the Afghan government to prevent the execution of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh”.

March - still alive

Working 10ish hours a day doesn’t lend itself to contribution to blogular society, but FWIW I’m still here.

April - fafblog!

Yay! fafblog!

May - Who'd athunkit?

A dock strike in the US against the war?

June - Teh Moff

"Spoilers", eh? :)

There were perhaps one or two too many nods toward fandom last night, but there's still a whole different quality to Steve's writing (and, to an extent, to the production).

July - well, that was a (predictable) load of crap, wasn't it?

good bits

Dalek Caan
Davros
Sarah Jane and Davros
TimeLord!Donna
Donna generally

August - Apropos something

Hardly anyone who reads this will know WTF I'm writing about (I'm not going to elucidate), and those that do are mostly the principals, who are old enough to sort their lives out for themselves, so this isn't likely to be aimed at you, gentle reader.

September - the personal and the political

Before youall start frothing at the mouth and attacking Sarah Palin for all the wrong reasons (it's not as though there's a shortage of right ones), have a read of pecunium's excellent summary post on what's been happening in the Twin Cities in the run up to the RNC; rather more important in the general scheme of things, no?

October - a very poorly kittin

We visited Bada at the vet hospital this afternoon, after her emergency admission yesterday.

November - Birthday!

Happy blue kittin birthday to ramtops!

December - still alive

It appears that I've posted nothing for four weeks.

Books finished

• The Family Trade (Merchant Princes 1) - Charles Stross
• Sound Mind - Tricia Sullivan
• Brasyl (Gollancz S.F.) - Ian Mcdonald
• Eighty-minute Hour: A Space Opera (Panther Books) - Brian W Aldiss
• The Club of Queer Trades - G.K.Chesterton
• A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
• A Wind in the Door - Madeleine L'Engle
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Yearling Books) - Madel L'engle
• Many Waters - Madeleine L'Engle
• Titus Groan (King Penguin S.) - Mervyn Peake
• Gormenghast (King Penguin S.) - Mervyn Peake
• Boy in Darkness - Mervyn Peake
• Titus Alone (King Penguin S.) - Mervyn Peake
• Quicksilver: The Baroque Cycle (Baroque Cycle 1) - Neal Stephenson
• Uncle Cleans Up - J. P. Martin
• Life of Pi - Yann Martel
• A Night in the Lonesome October - Roger Zelazny
• The Book of the Night - Rhoda Lerman
• Pavane (Millennium SF Masterworks S) - Keith Roberts
• The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson
• Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy - Jostein Gaarder
• The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Steep Approach to Garbadale - Iain Banks
• The New Nature of the Catastrophe (Tale of the Eternal Champion S.) - Michael Moorcock
• Nation - Terry Pratchett
• Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Brooch of Azure Midnight - Anne Gay
• Existential Psychotherapy - Irvin D. Yalom
• The ring of Ritornel (Gollancz SF) - Charles Leonard Harness
• The Sorceress and the Cygnet - Patricia McKillip
• The Cygnet and the Firebird - Patricia A. McKillip

Films/DVDs watched

Unless I've missed something, we didn't manage to get to a cinema even once in 2008.

• Funny Girl
• Brokeback Mountain
• Stardust [2007]
• Sunshine [2007]
• Crash [2004]
• The American President
• The West Wing (S1-7)
• Babylon 5 (The Gathering and S1-5)
• Driving Lessons [2006]
• In and Out
• Stepmom
• Galaxy Quest
• Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire [2005]
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [2007]
• Casino Royale [2006]
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [2005]
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Twins [1988]
• WarGames [1983]
• Genevieve [1953]
• Volcano [1997]

Resolutions!

In 2009, perlmonger resolves to...

Go to the book shops every month.
Tell my family about prehensile tails.
Backup my anarchism regularly.
Learn to play the music.
Cut down on my cooking.
Be nicer to annajaneclare.

Get your own New Year's Resolutions:

Happy New Year to you all; may 2009 be better for you than 2008, both in its best and its worst moments.

Comments

[purple-peril.livejournal.com]

A very happy and successful year to you both, and hoping you both feel better soon.
Seems like I haven't seen you for ages - we shall have to rectify that!

[ccomley.livejournal.com]

Sounds similar to me - started to cough on 27th - still barking badly now. Mostly goign from "productive" to "tickly" but it means i'm low on sleep and teh cats are theatening to move out.

And we had 16 for dinner today. Survived it by ammending the meny to something I could do more of in advance - they've seen off a Big Red Pot of beef stew with dumplings and another of chilli, a double load of mash, swede and carrot, and of the puds, the marmalade pud is gone, the blackberry and apple crumble mostly gone, and the goosberry and apple crumble... mostly left for me for tomorrow - Yay!

But my plans for left-over stew or chilli for dinner tomorrow have been... eated.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

We actually cancelled our traditional NYE dinner - we simply weren't well enough to host it :(